Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF

pines relates to the social relation between the two
races. The army, except in a few cases, has tabooed
the native socially. A friend, the wife of an officer
of high rank, said to me one day when I was preparing to make some calls on native acquaintances:
" I pity you Commission people; thank heaven the
army has no social duty toward these natives."
This attitude is perhaps natural, for a conqueror
seldom feels on an equality with a race with whom
he has recently been in conflict. So one seldom
meets natives at any but purely official army functions. They are rarely invited by officers to their
private entertainments. The Filipinos are sensitive
on this point and say: " If the Americans are going
to look on us tnd treat us as the Spaniards have
done for three hundred years, we do not want them
here."
MANILA, August i8, 1900.
THE day before yesterday our Apalit friends
called on us, but I was out. Elena acted as
hostess and with a mixture of Spanish and Italian
she managed to amuse and entertain them. In
Manila if one wishes to be very polite he returns
a first call the day it is made, but on no account
must he defer his visit later than the following day.
Therefore, although the weather was stormy, we
started yesterday for Tondo, where in true patriarchal fashion live the root and branches of this
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